Information technology - a poverty reduction tool?

Addis Ababa, 14 June - Does information technology have a role in poverty alleviation? For many poor people the answer is no. They need food not technology, a luxury they see as the domain of the rich.

Information and communication technology (ICT) now plays a major role in all aspects of life and has revolutionized the way we live, work and interact. But the question remains - does ICT contribute to poverty reduction or does it simply emphasise existing divisions between the rich and the poor? The digital divide of course exists and for the world's estimated 1.2 billion people living in abject poverty such technology is directly out of their reach.

But ICT for development has an increasingly vital role to play in the management of policies aimed at achieving the Millennium Development Goals, in data collection, creating networks, in informing greater numbers of people, ensuring greater accountability and in governance issues.

Many experts point out that in Africa, ICT is yet to be effectively integrated into national development strategies. The UN's Economic Commission for Africa notes that traditionally, decision-makers have regarded ICT as a completely separate area and often fail to see its role in poverty reduction.

In this regard, the Commission is working to ensure that national e-strategies - known as the National Information and Communication Infrastructure (NICI) plans - are used to incorporate ICT into poverty reduction strategies. These plans are viewed as long-term national programmes rather than one-off, donor-driven initiatives that are abandoned once the donor has left.

"[For example] social service delivery aspects of the MDGs focusing on reducing child mortality, improving maternal health and combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases are made a vital part of the ICT policy and deployment plans for the health sector," says ECA.

In particular, Goal 8 calls for cooperation with the private sector to "make available the benefits of new technologies, especially information and communication".

According to a report prepared for the World Bank, the MDGs provide targets and indicators for some of the most important socio-economic issues, and are therefore a useful focus for efforts aimed at harnessing ICT.

"E-strategies that directly address the MDGs with realistic steps are more likely to garner widespread support," the report points out. "While not everyone understands and agrees on the importance of spending public money on ICT, a plan that clearly illustrates the use of ICT in addressing poverty, hunger, HIV/AIDS, education and environmental sustainability would be more likely to be welcomed."

"The bottom line is that the digital divide is not the point. Progress towards socio-economic development is," the report stresses. "ICT has real impact only when it is addressing direct need."

Experts concur that ICT can contribute to poverty reduction if it is specifically tailored to the needs of the poor. It can also boost economic growth but is unlikely to alleviate poverty in countries where there are persistent socio-economic inequalities.

"Like all technologies, ICT offers tools and applications but no solutions," says Finnish economist Anita Kelles-Viitanen in a report.

"The solutions to the problem of poverty are what they have always been - economic growth, an enabling infrastructure, the creation of livelihoods, education and healthcare, and sufficiently democratic governments to ensure that economic benefits are not cornered by the powerful elites."

[Click here for World Bank report:
http://www.infodev.org/files/2049_file_InfoDev_E_
Rdnss_Rpt_rev11May05.pdf ]